The Malay archipelago : the land of the orang-utan ... - Wallace Online

—;I274 THE MALAY ARCHIPELAGO. [chap.and, in fact, have never been in a forest so utterly desert ofanimal life as this appeared to be. Even in all other groups ofinsects, except butterflies, there was the same poverty. I hadhoped to find some rare tiger beetles, as I had done in similarsituations in Celebes ; but, though I searched closely in forest,river-bed, and mountain-brook, I could find nothing but the twocommon Amboyna species. Other beetles there were absolutelynone.The constant walking in water, and over rocks and pebbles,quite destroyed the two pair of shoes I brought with me, so that,on my return, they actually fell to pieces, and the last day I liadto walk in my stockings very painfully, and reached home quiteOn our way back from Makariki, as on our way there,lame.we had storm and rain at sea, and we arrived at Awaiya latein the evening, with all our baggage drenched, and ourselvesthoroughly uncomfortable. All the time I had been in CoramI had suffered much from the irritating bites of an invisibleacarus, which is worse than mosquitoes, ants, and every otherpest, because it is impossible to guard against them. This lastjourney in the forest left me covered from head to foot with inflamedlumps, which, after my return to Amboyna, produced aserious disease, confining me to the house for nearly two months,—a not very pleasant memento of my first visit to Ceram, whichterminated with the year 1859.It was not till the 24th of February, 1860, that I started again,intending to pass from village to village along the coast, stayingwhere I found a suitable locality. I had a letter from theGovernor of the Moluccas, requesting all the chiefs to supplyme with boats and men to carry me on my journey. The firstboat took me in two days to Amahay, on the opposite side of thebay to Awaiya. The chief here, wonderful to relate, did notmake any excuses for delay, but immediately ordered out theboat which was to carry me on, put my baggage on board, setup mast and sails after dark, and had the men ready that nightso that we were actually on our way at five the next morninga display of energy and activity I scarcely ever saw before in anative chief on such an occasion. We touched at Cepa, andstayed for the rdght at Tamilan, the first two Mahometanvillages on the south coast of Ceram. The next day, aboutnoon, we reached Hoya, which was as far as my present boatand crew were going to take me. The anchorage is about amile east of the \TJlage, which is faced by coral reefs, and wehad to wait for the evening tide to move up and unload the boatinto the strange rotten wooden pavilion kept for visitors.There was no boat here large enough to take my baggage ;and although two would have done very well, the Rajah insistedupon sending four. Tlie reason of this I found was, thatthere were four small villages under his rule, and by sending aboat from each he would avoid the difiicult task of choosing twoand letting off the others. I was told that at the next village of